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Achilles, a famous demigod, was said to be the most powerful warrior in all of Greece. He figures in many myths and epics and is one of the principal characters in The Iliad, Homer’s other epic poem about the Trojan War. Achilles has long since died in battle by the time The Odyssey take place, and he is one of the spirits with whom Odysseus communicates when he travels to the underworld to speak with the seer Tiresias.
The Iliad depicts Achilles as a rage-fueled fighter who possesses almost superhuman battle skills and a desire for glory. However, The Odyssey presents a more introspective, softer take on Achilles which aligns with the epic’s tendency to focus on the characters’ inner lives as opposed to their actions. Achilles is first mentioned in Book 8 of The Odyssey when a bard sings a tale of Achilles’s skills on the battlefield. Instead of celebrating his comrade’s triumphs, Odysseus begins to weep over the death of a man that he fought beside for many years. Odysseus’s tears over the fallen Achilles foreshadow their brief reunion in Book 11, when Achilles’s spirit, though he died gloriously in battle, tells Odysseus that he would rather be a lowly slave on earth than a glorious king in the underworld. This sentiment alludes to his previous decision to die young and be remembered for all time rather than enjoy a long, anonymous life. Achilles, now part of the venerated dead, would give it up all up to return to the land of the living, offering a more nuanced understanding of life, death, and the Greek idea of kleos, or glory in battle.
